Indigo
by Lily of the Shadow
Summary: There would be nothing worse than to be stuck in Middle-Earth. It's so cliche, really. No modern conveniences, and not knowing anyone... I can hardly believe that all sixty of us got through relatively unscathed.
1. Chapter 1

Alright, this is sort of a test run. I want to see what kind of response this sort of thing would get. Everyone has read where a girl, or a boy, or some of their friends get sucked into Lord of the Rings, but I don't think it's ever been done on this scale, with 60 kids all popping into LOTR simultaneously. There will be absolutely **NO** LegolasxOC romances, or anything absurd of the sort. This will focus on the characters, the interactions, and their ability to cope and adapt.

This chapter is just setup, but I'd appreciate comments, ideas, and so on. I've gotten some written out, and I've got their purpose there and how they get back also planned, but I'd like to see where you think this story should go, and if you're interested in the idea.

Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings. Classmates are based on real people, with certain traits exaggerated or changed for the purposes of this story. Should any of them stumble across it, I apologize if I portray you in an unflattering light, I do not think ill of any of you, but for the purposes of the story, I need some antagonists and quirky people, and thus have taken some parts I see and blown them out of proportion.

Without further ado:

,.;vVv;.,

"What's with the towel, Liz?" Trevor asked. Liz laughed.

"It's towel day," she said, plucking at the pink floral towel slung over her shoulder. It didn't't exactly go well with her striped shirt and jeans, but that was perfectly alright.

"What," Trevor asked, raising an eyebrow, "is towel day?"

"It's a wake-thing. It's in honor of Douglas Adams—the guy who wrote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

"Oh… I see." He didn't, but Trevor knew Liz well enough to know that she was possibly crazy. Everyone in her class did, actually. Liz smiled a bit at the rest of the graduating class of 2007, all 67 of them. Four years ago, when she was at her first high school, she would have laughed off the concept of knowing the names of her entire (500-student) graduating class, but here she was, at least familiar with them, if not friends with about a quarter of the group.

The entire class was gathered outside by the rock—a boulder in the front yard of the school that was constantly being repainted in the middle of the night—it was tradition. At the moment, it was blue and silver, with "Class of 2007 wuz here" on the flattest part in yellow. It was around the rock that they gathered for their class picture.

"Miss, would you please take the towel off your shoulder?" the photographer asked. Liz groaned, but pulled the corner securely through her belt loop and pinned it with a safety pin to itself, so it wouldn't be in danger of falling off. It was heavy, because she had folded over one end and stitched it shut to form a makeshift purse for the day—one that held a notebook, a few pens, her copy of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and her copy of Lord of the Rings, among other various and sundry. She arranged it so that the weight wouldn't pull her pants off and looked back up. "Thank you. Alright now, One… two… three—Cheese!"

There was a click of the shutter, and a hush. The principal stared at the rock. The superintendent did as well. The photographer fell off his ladder.

The students were gone. All 67 of them.


	2. Chapter 2

Wow! I am thrilled with the response this has gotten. Six reviews in a day; that's better than the crossover that I swear I haven't abandoned.

Among the complaints I received were on the length: Rest assured that chapters from now on will be much longer than the introductory chapter, which essentially was to set down the initial plot and introduce the scene. I generally impose a minimum 1000-word limit on chapters I post, unless there is a scene which I absolutely cannot expand or continue. Generally, I try to make an upper limit of 2000 words, simply to maintain a uniformity of chapters. Some may be longer if I cannot find a place to break it naturally. My main goal here is flow; I won't force the length if I can help it.

Thank you again for the interest and compliments. With your encouragement, I'm positive I'll finish this one! _[Author sheepishly nudges the corner of unfinished stories under the bed_ I've actually got a plan for the direction of this one, but again: If you have any suggestions for things to do/have happen, by all means let me know!

I debated with myself for a long time which path to take this—the more serious, realistic way, or the slightly more humorous, easier way. This version I have chosen to take it the realistic way. If there is demand for it, I might post the other version as a separate story after this one is finished. It would be the same plot, same characters, and so forth, but Westron would equal English, so there would be more room for humor, puns, insults, arguments, etc.

,.-'''-.,

"The only thing we have to fear is Fear itself." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

'-..-'

A large class of students woke groggily in a vast field. They had no idea as to where the field was, but it was large enough that they were sure it wasn't in their county. There was an eerie silence before some started shouting, talking with friends, worrying, fretting, and all other manner of panic. Liz, who was generally quite spastic, hardly noticed this.

She had looked up and seen the vast sky. It was a gorgeous blue. The sun was far to their right, just a few 'inches' overtop of a majestic mountain range. She let her eyes trail along it, rarely having seen mountains so huge. She paused when the end of the range vanished over the horizon. 

The only logical thought that she could process was, "Dammit, I'm the only one with a bloody towel…"

One of the more collected students began taking inventory of people.

"Hey! Hey, everyone SHUT UP!" someone hollered.

The plain grew quiet. Everyone stared at class the pretty brunette who was their class president. "Okay. Look, we don't know where we are, but we can't panic!" Jenny said. There were some sarcastic mutterings, mostly from the non-"popular" cliques.

"We need to figure out what we have," Liz spoke up. Some people turned to look at her.

"What do you mean, what do we have?" Jenny asked, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

"Inventory," Liz reiterated. "Like, things that could help us survive. I doubt anyone snuck out about sixty waffles from that breakfast, but anything that will help us survive," she said, gesturing to the vast wilderness. "We are in the middle of nowhere!" She said. She reached into her pocket where the 4-inch blade had stayed after her hike with her brother a few days before. "I've got a knife and matches, for example," she said, holding it up for inspection.

"Of course _she_ would have a knife," she heard someone mutter. She frowned. It wasn't like she was known for being normal, but she wasn't crazy.

"Shut up," she said. "Look, does anyone have anything potentially useful? Food, tools, anything?"

People stared at her slightly incredulously. Finally, Ben spoke up: "I've got a lighter," he said. "And a knife, too."

"God, do all of the freaks have knives?" someone else said.

"I don't!" Heather, one of the same group, put in. Some people laughed, thought it was tense and quickly stifled.

"I have a granola bar?" someone offered. Liz sighed, slouching over and pinching the bridge of her nose.

"We're going to need a plan," Jenny put in, taking back control. "I say we follow that river," she said, pointing. Everyone looked over to find that there was, indeed, a river flowing about a mile to their left.

Liz pouting at not having been the one to suggest it, but agreed.

"It's most likely to have civilization somewhere along it downriver," she said, putting in her two cents. "We can't hike for more than a day or so, though," she said. "Not seriously. We'll go until late afternoon today, and then, if there are people with enough energy left, they can continue on through the night, and send back a search party for the rest if they find anyone." Liz laid out the plan, defying Jenny to oppose. Jenny did nothing against the motion, so it stood. "If we stick to the river, nobody will get lost," she said, looking around.

"Everyone, gather everything you have, who knows what we might need. We should get started," Jenny said. Behind them were woods, it seemed, and the river flowed out of them. Liz debated sending someone back to look for food, but decided against it. Who knew what was out there?

Liz walked mostly with her friends, Heather, Megan, and Becky. Heather was a stout girl with flyway hair and braces, a loud voice, and shelves filled nearly to collapse with fantasy novels. Megan was tall and somewhat heavy. She was the one with the vampire novels next to her slice-of-life chick lit. Becky was the short brunette with the huge black sweatshirt and anime doodles all over her notebooks.

The four exchanged theories on the sudden change of scenery, as did everyone else.

"It could have been aliens," Heather suggested, only half joking.

"What would aliens have done it for? Besides, I don't think that we would all be fine. Someone would have complained of a sore butt or some odd marks or something," Megan pointed out, also only half joking. They were undoubtedly uncomfortable with the situation. Liz stayed quiet, mulling things over. She kept an eye on the growing mountains in the distance.

"If we can keep a steady pace," she said suddenly. The other girls looked at her. She continued, "something around four miles an hour, a decent walking speed," she looked toward the sky. "We can cover probably thirty miles before we stop for the night. If there are still people who can go on, they can get another twelve or so in. Forty-two miles won't be too bad, right? Surely there will be something along the river there. I don't think even the Mississippi has more than a few dozen miles empty at a time."

"You're probably right," Becky said, "but I know the preps are going to complain about food," she scoffed. Liz sighed.

"Yeah..." She looked around at the group. She and the girls were near the front—they trailed in chunks for almost a hundred yards. She stopped them. "Hey, wait up a minute," she said. She also halted all the groups that were coming up behind.

"Why are we stopping?" someone asked.

"We need to stick together, guys!" she claimed exasperatedly. "A string of people looks a lot easier to attack than a tight cluster. Try and stay grouped up instead of spread out, alright?" she said. There were some irritated mutters, and a few complaints.

"Come on! We've only been walking for a few hours. We're going to need to walk until sunset, people, we've got hours yet to go!" Liz snapped. She adjusted the towel over her shoulder, taking a deep breath. Without allowing herself to bark further orders, she turned and continued walking.

"She's kind of right, though," Alex commented to Jenny, coming up behind her. Alex was an incredibly laid back brunette who was somewhere between a National Honor Society student and a hippie. Jenny looked up at him.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"We've got a long way to go," he said. "And no food to go on. We have to stick together. If some people get a little behind everyone might get way behind, then we'll lose people."

Jenny sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right," she admitted. She looked at the students all together. "It might be our only hope," she said quietly.


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you so much for the reviews!

One of my reviewers mentioned something that alerted me to a mistake I made—the sun was over the mountains to their right, not the left. It has been corrected, and I apologize. It was correct in an earlier version, before it occurred to me that Rivendell would be thoroughly unhelpful in the year they arrive.

Knowing how, however, that my readers seem to be taking this a lot more seriously than I was (I decided to post the realistic version, but my mind was stuck on the funny version), I have bucked up and done a bit more reading than I thought I would have to, looked at maps, calculated distances and times, started writing up character profiles, and so on and so forth.

In addition to on-line resources, I have recently acquired The Atlas of Middle Earth, which has proved an invaluable resource. I highly recommend purchasing it if you are into writing serious fan fiction, since it has many detailed maps of several important locations, including Bag End, Thranduil's palace, Minas Tirith, and so forth, as well as maps and locales from the earlier ages, and maps of troop movements during the great battles. I have fallen in love with it.

Without further ado:

,.-'''-.,

"Reality leaves a lot to the imagination." -John Lennon

'-..-'

It seemed like hours before the scenery changed at all. They wandered alongside the river, passing sparse tags and scattered woods. The sun was coming up to setting. Liz was irritated; she didn't think that they had made as good of time as she knew they could. Part of her was bitter—she knew they could have—should have—made better time.

On the other hand, though, she was exhausted. She was still up toward the front of the group, though, so she stopped her companions and sighed as the sun finally completely vanished below the horizon.

"We should stop," she called. "Rest now, while its light, then appoint a watch through the night."

"We should continue on while we can still see," Jenny interrupted, coming to a halt herself.

"If we don't rest now, we can't get up early enough to get anywhere tomorrow. In case you haven't noticed, we've not made that much progress," Liz snapped heatedly.

"Maybe now would be a good time to split into two groups," Alex suggested, breaking in with his usual soothing diplomacy.

"If we're going to split up, I want to go on with the group that continues," Liz demanded. She refused to be left out of the front lines, so to speak. A small argument ensued, during which most of the class seemed to make a unanimous decision and began gathering tag wood and debris to start a fire.

By the time Liz, Jenny, and Alex had reached a consensus on the plan (split up) and the nature of their food supply (that there was none, and they wouldn't find any anytime soon), Ben had flicked the lighter and ignited dry leaves, which blazed up and caught the rest of the woodpile on fire. The three turned to look somewhat blankly at the flickering light.

"Let's rest a little first, at least," Nicole suggested.

-

Such is the nature of High School: the formation of cliques and the alienation of everyone different. It was no different in small towns. In fact, one might argue that it was worse, because everyone knows everybody's business. There is no such thing as running into an unfamiliar, neutral face in the halls between classes. Likewise, there is no way to remain unnoticed.

Liz crossed her arms, trying to silence the growling in her stomach, as she sat outside the circle of students around the fire. She had a particular affinity for the hypnotizing flame, but she had no love of her classmates.

Jenny stood close to the fire, speaking.

"We will be breaking up into two groups," Jenny announced. Those who want to rest will stay here and sleep by the fire. Everyone who feels they can go on for a long time still will continue until dawn, and make camp then, for us to catch up. If the group going ahead finds a city, they will send people back with a truck or a bus or something to pick the rest of us up."

There was some murmuring of agreement. Liz sighed and turned around, digging into her makeshift purse. She pulled the sewing kit out and threaded a needle. She had decided to whipstitch the towel into a sash, instead of leaving it up to the safety pin to keep it secure. She squinted in the firelight to work, ignoring the complaints of the students around her about the cold, the lack of food, the uncomfortable ground.

Some people were used to camping, and had experience hunting, so they had few qualms about the situation, but even in the rural farming community, there were the urban-at-heart girls bedecked in their Hollister and Tommy Hilfiger, bemoaning the dirt stains that would never come out of their fake-worn jeans and "vintage"-look tees.

"Hey, Liz," Heather was joined by her friends.

"Hey, guys. Are you stopping or going on?" she asked, knotting the thread and checking its security.

"I'm going on," Heather said. "So is Becky."

"I'm stopping," Megan sighed. "Sorry, but I can't keep walking."

"It's alright," Liz said. "We can't take all the intelligent people ahead, some have to stay back to keep these idiots rational," she half-joked. They laughed uneasily, still uncomfortable with the fact that they had no idea where they were or how they got there.

"Where do you think we are?" Becky asked.

Liz sighed and tucked her sewing kit back into the purse. She shrugged it on and leaned over to hug her knees, staring into the fire. "I wish I knew."

"Why don't we try divining it?" Heather asked, looking through her purse. "I think I brought—shoot, no I didn't."

"Brought what?" Megan asked.

"My tarot deck," Heather sighed. "But I remember now, I took it out last night to do a reading."

"What'd the reading say?" Liz asked. She usually didn't hold with fortune-telling nonsense, but given the situation, she'd take any help she could get.

"It was confusing," Heather said, picking at the grass. "Something about understanding. But it had to be wrong, because we're only more confused, you know?"

"Ah," Liz sighed. She saw several people around the fire standing up.

"Everyone who's going, come on! Only come if you're sure you can walk for another few hours at least," Rachel announced. She and Nicole, her sister (they were twins), were involved in Basketball and Volleyball at school, so it was no surprise that the two were continuing. They were followed by about 20 other students.

"That's our cue," Liz said.

"Come on. We'll see you tomorrow, right Megan?" Heather said. There was a moment of silence, before the girls huddled into a somewhat desperate group hug.

"Stay safe," Megan said, slightly choked.

"You, too," Heather said. "Bye."

"Bye," Megan said.

"_Later_," Liz emphasized. Megan gave her a thankful smile.

"Later," she repeated.

"Are you three coming or not?" Nicole asked of Heather, Becky, and Liz.

"Coming," Liz responded for them. They jogged across the circle to the group and they set off once again toward the mountain.


End file.
